What Do I Want Out of Writing

I plan on thinking through the heroes I like and dislike and giving them a bit of a write-up, but first, I wanted to take some time to explore a question Mariah Avixasked me a little while ago.

What do I want out of my writing?

As I think through this, there’s the dream you have much like when I was a kid playing tennis and dreaming I’d be the next Billie Jean King. So, sure, I dream about being the next Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. It’s the pinnacle of the profession.

But what do I want?

I wish I could say: to be a good writer and recognized as such. But that’s not entirely true. I want more than that. I want people I don’t know to read what I’ve written, enjoy it, and want to read another story written by me.

I don’t ever expect writing to pay the bills like my day job does. After all, I picked my profession partially because I was good at it and partially because it keeps a roof over our heads. But I wantmy writing to pay the bills and more. I want to get to spend my days dreaming up characters, worlds, and stories.

But that’s only a half-truth, too.

I likethe analytical aspect of my day job. I enjoy being handed a problem and digging into it, scraping together the numbers and making them dance. Finding a solution in the data, or at least an answer.

The truth is somewhere in between.

I want writing to be profitable enough that maybe I could go part-time on the day job and part-time on writing and still keep a roof over my family’s head.

But in the world of writing, that seems an almost impossible feat.

And I hate failure.

So perhaps that’s why I set my goal lower. One I thought possible to achieve. Write well enough that it pays for itself. If I need to take a class, or if I need a website etc. that the writing pays for it rather than my day job.